Hey, how are you doing? Justin here.
Today we're going to check out the 12 bar blues. In fact we're
going to look at 3 different variations. The first one is the standard 12 bar
blues form. The next one we're gonna check out is called a quick
change which moves to a chord a little bit quicker than the other
one, hence it's name. And the other one I call a slow change that does
seem to be a term that I use and other people don't. There doesn't
seem to be a generic kind of a name for it, but you'll see when
we get there why I would call it the slow change 12 bar blues.
We're gonna do it in 3 different keys. But before we get there I
need to explain a little bit about the way we name the chords.
Now we use a little system where we name the chords off the scale
degres. Some of you might remember that from where we talked about the
chords in a key. So in a blues we're only using the I, the IV and the V
chords. OK? So all of the chord progressions we'll be talking about
I'll be saying this one doesn't go to the V chord in bar 12. OK? That
will make sense a little bit more when we start looking at each one,
each different key. But just remember that the I chord is going to be the
name of our key. The IV chord is going to be built of the 4th degre
of the major scale of that key. So just to be totally clear about
that. If we think in the key of C. C would be the I, D would be the II,
E would be the III, F would be the IV, and G would be the V. So the I, IV
and V in the key of C would be C, F and G. We're not actually
doing a 12 bar blues in the key of C in this particular lesson. We're going
to be doing them in the key of A, G and E and by practicing all of
those keys we're going to learn and be working on all 6 of our
7th chords. So we will be checking out in this lesson. Now we're going
to do the standard 12 bar blues first of all in the key of A.
Standard 12 bar progression is 4 bars on the I chord, which will be the
chord A, 2 bars on the IV chord, which will be D7 in this case,
back to the I chord for 2 bars back to A7, then we've got 1 bar each
of the V chord, the IV chord, the I chord and the V chord, which in this
case will be E7, D7, A7 and E7. That is the standard 12 bar blues.
Let's play through it. So starting off on the A chord, we're gonna
have 1, 2, 3, 4, 2, 2, 3, 4, 3, 2, 3, 4 and 4, now we're going
to the D7, the IV chord, 1, 2, 3, 4 for 2 bars and then back to A.
1, 2, 3, 4, 2, 2 now 1 bar of each we've got E7, the V chord, then
D7, the IV chord, A7 to E7. A 1...2...3...4
D7 1...2... back to A7 1...2...one bar each E7, D7, A7, E7.
Now at first it might seem there's a whole heap of chords to remember
but you're gonna find is that you develop a feeling for when it's
time to change chords. That won't happen straight away, take a few
weeks, maybe a few months. But you will develop that feeling and it's
a very, very good thing to learn. It will help you with all sorts of other
songs that you learned to play. A lot of our music is based on
groups of 4 bars, groups of 8 bars, groups of 12 and 16. Groups of 4
basically. And by practicing the 12 bar blues you get used to those
different changes, because you get used to what it sounds like
to be on one chord for 4 bars, 2 bars on one chord, 2 bars on
another chord, still making up our 4 and then 1 bar on each chord.
So you've got all of these kind of patterns there that you're gonna
learn to memorise and it will be easier than you think. It just
takes practice, like everything else. So the first step I would recommend
you go through is playing your 12 bar blues in the key of A, just
doing strumming on the beat the way I did it first of all, then have a
go at adding that shuffle strumming in. If you want to use a backing track
or something like that, that can help as well just to be practicing
along and you hear the bass moving as well. That will help you get used to
the form, the form is very important. Again it's a 12 bar blues, not an
11 1/2 bar blues or 13 bar blues or whatever. Next thing I want to
talk about is a quick change blues. Now the quick change blues we're
gonna do in the key of E and the thing that defines the quick change
blues is it goes to chord IV in bar 2. So it goes from 1 bar on
the I chord then 1 bar on the IV chord and then back to the I chord for
another 2 bars. OK? So in this case it's gonna go E7 for 1 bar, the
IV chord in the key of E is A7. So we're going to be there for 1 bar
on A7 and then we go back to E7 chord for 2 bars. The rest of the
sequence will be the same as the standard chord progression. This
is a very, very common one. Really great example of it will be "Before you
Accuse Me" by Eric Clapton which is in the key of E as well.
So let's have a play through of that now first we have E, 1, 2, 3, 4
to A7 2, 3, 4 back to E7 2, 3, 4 there's the 2nd bar, 2, 3, 4
the rest is the same as the standard progression, 2 bars of A, 1, 2, 3, 4
and the back to E 2, 3, 4, 2 bars of that, now we go to B7 for 1 bar,
A7 for 1 bar, E7 for 1 bar, B7 for 1 bar. OK? So the order of chords
is in like I, IV, V is exactly the same as a standard 12 bar blues
except for bar 2 where it goes to the IV chord early. OK? There's
a quick change to the IV. Again first point would definitely be
playing like I did there early, just playing on the beat, it's not
very groovy, it's about learning the chord progression, making sure
you're making the chord changes at the right time. As soon as your
hip with that you could start putting on that bit of that shuffle rhythm.
We'll talk about that little turn around when we have a look,
before your accuse me, beginners version to be coming very soon.
So that is a quick change blues. The last one that we're gonna check
out is called a slow change blues. Well I call it a slow change blues.
I've been searching around and trying to find out if there's an
official term for it and I can't find one. It starts off as a standard
12 bar blues. So 4 bores, 4 bores!, 4 bars on the I chord, then 2 bars
on the IV chord, back to 2 bars on the I chord. Now the last 4 bars
is where it's different and it just goes 2 bars on the V chord
and then 2 bars on the I chord. So you end up kind of having 6
bars in a row of the I chord, bars 11 and 12 and then 1, 2, 3 and 4.
Quite a long stay there on the I chord. Classic 12 bar blues that
uses this one is "Johnny be Good". That is using this slow change where
you stay on the V chord for 2 bars, because regularly you just have it
in bars...what would it be 9 and 12 you'd have the V chord. This time
we have it just in bars 9 and 10 only and we don't go to it at the end. OK?
That's the important deal. In the key of G, I chord would be the G7,
the IV chord would be C7 and the V chord would be D7. So let's have
a play through a slow change in G. Starting off on the G chord we have
1, 2, 3, 4, bar 2, 2 ,3, 4, bar 3, 2, 3, 4, then the 4th bar and we
change to C7 for 2 bars, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, and back to G7
for 2 bars, 2, 3, 4, now 2 bars on D7, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2 ,3 ,4
back to G7, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4. Now again that's how you should
start. Making sure you memorise the pattern. Do try and see it in
little blocs of 4. OK? Paticularly slow changes, nice and easy.
1, 1, 1, 1, 4, 4, 1, 1, 5, 5, 1, 1. It's a very, very simple progression
to remember and it's very common. All of these three 12 bar sequences
are collectively just 12 bar blues. One of the kind of mistakes I think
I made as a teenager, because I played a lot of this sort of stuff, was
that I just thought 12 bar blues was 12 bar blues. I think I pretty much used
the standard one all the time, whether I was playing "Johnny be
Good" or I was playing "Status quo" or whatever, I always used that
standard form and I hadn't, I basically wasn't listening, I wasn't paying
enough attention. As you listen more and you get more into it, then you
would find the different blues standards used slightly different
chord sequences. You can kind of blag your way through which ever
one. Si if you just played the standard chord sequence, you could play
"Johnny be Good" using that standard chord sequence and no one would
really mind probably. In fact I'm sure lots of bands still do.
But if you start to pay attention you start to see these variations.
Sometimes songs use different variations of the 12 bar blues
in different points in the song. Thinking like Georges Satelites
"Keep Your Hands to Yourself" has one kind of slow changy kind of
a thing going on in the verses but then in the solos it's using a
standard 12 bar blues. So, maybe a quick change I can't actually remember
now. Memory is failing me. But you will find that there are specific
12 bar blues variations for different songs. So you need to be familiar
with all 3 of these variations. In the songs part of this little
lesson I'm gonna talk about a little bit more about specific songs that
use each one of those different chord progression to sink your teeth into. But
there are hundreds, thousands, probably tens of thousands of blues songs that
use the 12 bar blues sequence for you to learn. So a little bit it's
about finding the ones you really commect with. It's loads of fun.
Do practice now your standard 12 bar blues in the key of A, your
quick change in the key of E and the slow change in the key of G.
But then have a go at mixing it up. So maybe do your quick change
in the key of A and then maybe do the quick change in the key of G.
Just have a muck around. Blues is very malleable. It's very free
form. Even though I'm kind of giving you set things, you can definitely
play around with it. Experiment as much as you like and see what you
can come up with. There are no rules here. So maybe you end up
changing the form of the 12 bar blues completely and come up with
your own song. That would be pretty cool. I should do that myself.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this lesson about the 12 bar blues and
that you've got some songs to have a bit of fun with when it comes
to practice time. I'll see you with plenty more very soon.
You all take care of yourselves. Bye bye.